Search the Dictionary

Inciting; encouraging or moving; rousing to action; stimulative. Competency is the most incentive to industry. Dr. H. More.

Incitingly; encouragingly.

made of the salted roes of the mullet, much used on the coast of the Mediterranean as an incentive to drink.

waste, etc.; decay; destruction. Every new advance of the price to the consumer is a new incentive to him to retrench the quality of his consumption. Burke.

hich serves to incite, support, promote, or advance, as favor, countenance, reward, etc.; incentive; increase of confidence; as, the fine arts find little encouragement among a rude people. To think of his paternal care, Is a most sweet encouragement to prayer. Byron.

One who furnishes incentives; an encourager. "The feeder of my riots." Shak.

Fig.: Impulse; incentive; vigor; force. Buckle.

That which incites to action; that which rouses or prompts; incitement; motive; incentive. The noblest incitation to honest attempts. Tatler.

That which incites the mind, or moves to action; motive; incentive; impulse. Burke. From the long records of a distant age, Derive incitements to renew thy rage. Pope.

Any scheme or device proposed by a quack. The incentives of agitators, the arts of impostors and the nostrums of quacks. Brougham.

A goad; hence, something that rouses the mind or spirits; an incentive; as, the hope of gain is a powerful stimulus to labor and action.